ZURICH: Indian corporates have started buying pricey sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for flights, in a bid to cut their carbon footprint left behind during globetrotting for work.
The Lufthansa Group says 60 corporate clients in India including Dalmia Bharat Limited, Hindustan Book Agency and VFS Global have invested over Euro 1.4 lakh towards purchase of about 2.2 lakh tonnes of SAF for their business travel with Lufthansa and Swiss. Lufthansa has started offering green fares within Europe and to North Africa — where any passenger can opt to pay more for SAF.
“The Lufthansa Group has ambitious sustainability goals and as the largest SAF customer in Europe has started offering ‘green fares’ to markets within Europe and North Africa. While green fares will one day be available to the Indian consumer, there are a variety of ways in which travellers can offset their carbon footprint when travelling,” said a Lufthansa official while giving the example of the Indian corporates who have opted to pay for SAF for their official travel.
Gabriel Mueller, Swiss’ manager corporate responsibility, said: “Swiss has a long-standing commitment for sustainability. Our ambition is to make travel more sustainable and create lasting value for our customers, employees, and society. To this end, we have set ourselves ambitious carbon reduction targets, and plan to halve our 2019 net carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and reach a carbon-neutral balance by 2050 in our operations, particularly by promoting the use of sustainable aviation fuels.”
The Lufthansa Group is the largest SAF customer in Europe and among the top three worldwide. It has committed Euro 2.5 billion SAF purchase in the next three years and is investing investing over Euro 2.5 billion per year for a “green” fleet of latest technology aircraft and engines that cut both emissions and noise apart from boasting of higher fuel efficiency.
“(Lufthansa Group’s) goal is of becoming carbon-neutral by 2050 and of cutting net carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 compared to 2019. It recently joined the First Movers Coalition (FMC) – global initiative led by the World Economic Forum and the US Department of State — and has committed itself to replace at least 5% of its conventional jet fuel demand with SAF by 2030,” said the Lufthansa official.
Swiss says it has become the world’s first airline to deploy “AeroSHARK technology” on its passenger aircraft. “The transparent AeroSHARK film applied to aircraft’s fuselage and engine nacelles replicates the hydrodynamic skin of a shark to reduce aerodynamic drag and, as a result, lower both inflight fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions,” said a Swiss official.
All twelve Boeing 777-300ER (extended range) aircraft of Swiss have the riblet film, which has been co-developed by Lufthansa Technik and chemicals and coatings manufacturer BASF, applied to their fuselage and engine nacelles. The resulting reduction in aerodynamic drag makes these B777s “more than 1% more fuel-efficient, and this in turn will substantially further reduce our carbon dioxide emissions. The AeroSHARK film features millions of ‘riblets’ – small protrusions just 50 mm high – which replicate the highly hydrodynamic skin of sharks, and thus reduces an aircraft’s aerodynamic drag wherever it is applied,” the official said.
The writer was in Zurich at the invitation of Swiss and Swiss Tourism